


Moving On

by Dramaticdragon



Series: Met Earlier AU [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, College AU, Fluff, M/M, Minor Angst, met earlier au, notes on the au on the au page
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dramaticdragon/pseuds/Dramaticdragon
Summary: Long distance relationships are hard on their own, but especially when you see other people living where you wish you could be.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: Met Earlier AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979899
Kudos: 57





	Moving On

**Author's Note:**

> notes on the AU on the series page, but just know there is no context and nothing to learn here. just college life you know how it be.

Yuuri sat lazily on his dorm bed, flipping through his phone at his friend’s social media stories. Phicit was posting in class about his debate on getting a new hamster or not, one of his classmates posted a particularly funny video game meme, and the sports magazine account he follows posted about their newest lineup. Nothing spectacular, but good enough to not get out of bed for. Better than homework.

But his social media laziness was interrupted by a text- from Viktor.

<<Viktor<< _Yuuuuuuriii look at what I’m eating!!! Yakov took us out to eat!!! I think he might even secretly like us (・_・ヾ_

<<Viktor<< [image attached]

Yuuri looked at the image. It was a very artfully taken photo of a really tasty looking dish. For a healthy meal, it looked astoundingly good. But then again, Yuuri didn’t trust Viktor not to use 30 filters if it looked bad.

>>Yuuri>> _man that looks amazing… I had mealplan breakfast so far :/_

<<Viktor<< _I would suffer through your stale meal plan cereal if it meant I could eat it with you <3333_

Man, what the heck?! That was too cute… Yuuri supposed he’d have to try being cute back, then.

>>Yuuri>> _If I had a choice, I’d rather us share what you’re having instead._

<<Viktor<< _Actually, can I call?_

>>Yuuri>> _sure thing_

And within the same second Yuuri saw the “read” notification, his phone starting chiming.

“Hello?” Yuuri said, quickly picking up. He decided his arms didn’t feel like holding up the phone, so he laid down on his right side and just plopped the phone over his left ear, so it’d stay in place. Truly, he looked like a man of culture.

“Hi Yuuri!” Viktor greeted, just a pinch too loud to be directly in someone’s ear. It was a price Yuuri was willing to pay, however.

“Did you already finish eating?” Yuuri asked. According to time zones, it should be just after the typical ‘dinner time’ for Viktor, but restaurants can change your schedule a bit if you’re in a group.

“I did, but a couple of them are getting dessert. I didn’t want any, so now I’m out here, talking to you!” Viktor explained cheerfully.

“Wouldn’t you rather still be hanging out with them though?” Yuuri asked, only slightly incredulously. Viktor was weirdly selfish with his time, only spending it with someone if he truly wanted to, and nothing more than that. But he was at least friends with his rink mates, or most of them…

“Not really.” He said, and Yuuri could hear the shrug, “Actually…”

Yuuri waited for Viktor to continue. His cheery little chime in his voice was suddenly leaving.

“I found out why Yakov took us out to eat, today.” Viktor said.

“Not because he secretly loves you?” Yuuri joked quietly. He knew Viktor loved Yakov, too, so it was fair joking range.

Viktor giggled a little, but quickly sombered back up.

“He _does_ , but not this time… One of our rink mates is transferring. This was a bit of a going-away-slash-farewell-announcement party, so to speak.”

“Ah,” Yuuri said, “Who’s moving?”

“Uh, Alexi- or, no, Alexander, I think.”

Yuuri wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Viktor talk about someone with either or those names. It wasn’t someone who Viktor was close to, then.

So if it wasn’t Viktor’s friend, why was he so upset about him moving away? Perhaps it was a sad thing overall; Yuuri was never one to judge when someone was simply sad for the sake of being sad, sometimes.

“He’s moving to New York.”

 _Oh_ , Yuuri thought, suddenly putting together the missing pieces. _This_ was why Viktor was sad about it.

Viktor and Yuuri had both spoken, at length, about how long distance in this extreme was very hard for them both. St. Petersburg and Detroit weren’t exactly on near time zones, after all. But neither of them were in a place where they could just up and move. Yuuri was in school, and even though transferring was a potential these days, it would be enough of a setback since he was so far along in his major. Especially if he transferred to another country, where the education system was different than his own. Plus, he had his coach here. The same could be said for Viktor, who had his own coach in Russia. Even though people have jumped between coaches before, Viktor would have to be blind and stupid to leave Yakov, with his current record. Even if Yuuri wasn’t as desperately attached to Celestino, he was still used to how he operated as a coach, and worked well with him and his school schedule. All in all, one of them would have to upend their entire life to move together.

That all being said, it was far from unwanted. Yuuri couldn’t count the number of times Viktor had sent him screenshots of house listings in the Detroit area, with captions like “oh this one has such a fancy bathroom!”, or “The backyard would be so nice for a whole family of poodles!” It broke Yuuri’s heart just about every time, but he knew it was Viktor’s way of coping with the distance- fantasizing about their being nothing in between them but a difference in house preferences. At the moment, they were mostly just playing the waiting game until Yuuri graduated. But they wanted, so desperately, to be physically closer.

And this guy, Alexander or whatever, was getting to do what they dreamed of. _He_ got to just up and leave. And even if New York wasn’t Detroit, it was quite literally a whole ocean closer than Viktor.

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri whispered, voice lowered in sadness.

There was nothing they could do, after all.

“Maybe I’ll give him some presents to deliver to you when he gets there,” Viktor said, trying to find something funny out of this, at least.

“I’m not exactly walking distance from New York, though,” Yuuri reminded.

“Oh, it’s smaller than Russia, I’m sure it’s not that far away,” Viktor said, and Yuuri could just _feel_ his dismissing waving motion.

“Viktor,” Yuuri laughed, for real this time, “ _Everywhere_ is smaller than Russia, it’s literally the _biggest_ country.”

“Exactly!” Viktor said, as if Yuuri was _agreeing_ with him.

“Fine,” Yuuri chuckled, “If you give him some presents, maybe me and Phichit can make a road trip out of it. I know he wants to go at some point while he’s in the states.”

“See! It’s a great plan!”

They laughed together for a moment, before quieting down.

“Maybe I’ll ask him to mail me some tourist pamphlets from New York, and sneak them into Yakov’s pockets. _Surely_ , he’ll fall in love with it, and move us to New York!” Viktor said, his sneaky, joking tone undermined by the still present sadness.

“But what about when I graduate? Are you going to stay in New York?” Yuuri teased.

“I’ll just find some more tourist papers for wherever you move, and keep following you around.” Viktor said, with a conviction that broke Yuuri’s heart once again.

“I guess I’ll have to move to Saint Petersburg when I graduate, then,” Yuuri said, still playing along, “It will probably be easiest to convince Yakov to move back to somewhere he knows, after all.”

“Oh, or what if I just squeeze _myself_ into his suitcase, and pretend it’s a gift for you to pick up! And then you come pick _me_ up!” Viktor laughed.

“But you’ll get squished!”

“I’m skinny, I’ll fit!”

They laughed together some more, trying to work out the logistics of fitting Viktor into a carry-on bag, and then just settling on having to pay extra for heavy luggage. Then they realized Viktor would have to find a way to smuggle Makkachin, too, and at that point it started getting too complicated.

“Text me some pictures of Detroit tourist ads, I’ll make sure Yakov just so happens to see them,” Viktor said, accepting defeat over squeezing into a suitcase.

“Just another year and a half,” Yuuri sighed, “I’ll skip my graduation ceremony if I have to.”

“Absolutely not, I’m coming to you for th- Oh, Yuuri, I think I need to go, Mila’s waving me back in.” Viktor said. If Yuuri was a better man, maybe he wouldn’t feel so good about how sad Viktor is to leave their phone call. But instead, he is a petty, petty man.

“Go fix whatever fight Yurio got into,” Yuuri joked, “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Yes, when a bright pink suitcase shows up at your door, you’ll know who it is!”

Yuuri giggled.

“Bye, I love you. Text me when you get home?”

“I will. I love you too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> some of the conversation is based on real convos i had with my host family/friends when i had to leave Germany
> 
> also thanks for all the nice comments/messages, i love yallllll


End file.
